District Election Officer Jammu, Ramesh Kumar, today convened a meeting with all the zonal heads of the banks operating in the district and called for strict monitoring and reporting of suspicious withdrawal of cash from the banks as per the guidelines of the Election Commission of India.

The meeting was attended by all the zonal heads of banks, ADCs of Jammu district Rishpal Singh and Tahir Firdous, Deputy DEO Jammu Gul Hussain and Lead Bank Manager Bhupinder Singh and other concerned.

The DEO urged upon all the zonal heads to keep a strict vigil on the election-related expenditure by the candidates and the political parties.

They were told to report unusual and suspicious cash withdrawal or deposit of cash exceeding Rs. 1 lakh during the process of election, unusual transfer of amount by RTGS to the account of several persons without any precedent of such transfer, or suspicious transactions which might be used to bribe the electors during the election process.

DEO further instructed the zonal officers to bring immediately under the notice of Nodal Officer of Income Tax Department any withdrawal or deposits which is more than Rs 10 lakh for taking necessary action under the income tax laws.

Kumar further instructed the bankers regarding the proper implementation of the standard operating procedure for transportation of cash by ATM vans.

Directions were passed to ensure that the cash vans of outsourced agencies/companies carrying the bank’s cash shall not, under any circumstances, carry cash of any third party agencies/individuals except the bank.

The outsourced agencies/companies shall carry letters/ documents including the authorization letters and also the personnel of the outsourced agencies accompanying cash van shall carry identity cards issued by the respective agencies. The whole process of cash transfer has to be video graphed.

DEO also directed the banks to open hassle-free bank accounts for the candidates who have filled their nomination papers and special counters shall be operated for them at least two days before the start of the nominations. It is pertinent to mention here that the nominations will start from 18th of March and will end on 25th of March and the election expenditure limit has been capped at Rs 70 lakh per candidate.

Later, Additional Deputy Commissioners Jammu, Rishpal Singh convened a meeting with monitoring committee to finalize the rate list for monitoring election-related expenditure by political parties during General Elections 2019.